An 84-year-old burlesque queen, Finnish cheerleaders and Gigi star Leslie Caron are among the female subjects in the latest 11 doc projects to receive funding from the Shaw Media Hot Docs Funds. (Pictured: A Better Man)

An 84-year-old burlesque queen, mermaids, Finnish cheerleaders and Gigi star Leslie Caron are among the female subjects in the latest 11 doc projects to receive funding from the Shaw Media Hot Docs Funds.

The funding partners have invested CAD$241,000 (US$200,800) in all, via grants and non-interest loans, for the doc projects, by way of the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and Shaw Media.

Other funded projects include Cheer the F**k Up, director Christy Garland‘s film about an unhappy, badly losing team of Finnish cheerleaders; Attiya Khan’s A Better Man (pictured above), a film about violence against women that is exec produced by Sarah Polley; and director/producer Maya Gallus’s A Female Gaze, which probes the female gaze through the eyes of female film directors.

Hot Docs and Shaw Media are also backing director Ali Weinstein’s Mermaids, which is exec produced by Ron Mann; and Mathieu-Martin, a doc about young Acadians directed by former Hot Docs programmer Samara Grace Chadwick.

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Daniele Alcinii is a news editor at realscreen, the leading international publisher of non-fiction film and television industry news and content. He joined the RS team in 2015 with experience in journalism following a stint out west with Sun Media in Edmonton's Capital Region, and with communications work in Melbourne, Australia and Toronto. You can follow him on Twitter at @danielealcinii.